Tag: Asus

The 2016 Asus ZenFone 3 Max is getting a nice surprise for owners starting today.  The company has pushed out the Android Oreo 8.1 update to the phone along with the new ZenUI 5.0 update to the phone.  The updated firmware is version 15.0200.1807.406 for those keeping score at home.

The update can be checked for on our ZenFone 3 Max by going to Settings>About>System Update.  Given that it has just been released, it make take a few days to get to everyone so patience is the key.

Another flagship phone was announced today at Mobile World Congress and stop me if you have seen it before – because if you’ve seen an iPhone X, you’ve essentially seen the Asus ZenFone 5Z.

The latest flagship in a trio of phones announced today by Asus is as blatant a copy of the Apple flagship as you will find but that may not be all that bad.  THe ZenFone 5Z isn’t a cheap knock-off.  It is a flagship with flagship specs.  The 6.2″ FullHD IPS display renders at 1080 x 2246 pixels and is a 18.5:9 ratio.  That gives you a very comfortable ~402 ppi density.  It is powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC which is coupled with the Adreno 630 GPU.  It has 4GB of RAM and comes standard with 64GB of storage which can be expanded thanks to the MicroSD slot.  Battery wise, you have a 3300mAh battery.

The ASUS ZenFone 3 is the latest ASUS phone to start getting its update to Android Oreo.  The update was released yesterday and should be making its way to owners as an OTA update over the course of the next few days.  The new firmware build is version 15.0410.1712.31 for those keeping score at home.

The update brings all of the things that you expect from Oreo along with an overall improved UI experience for the ZenFone 3.  One of those changes is a new app drawer where you will simply swipe up to show all the apps installed on your phone.  This behavior is similar to Google’s Pixel devices.

Last month, ASUS announced the updated series of ZenFone 4 devices and released them, mostly in Asian markets.  Now we are starting to see the first of these here in the United States.  The new ZenFone 4 Max, sporting a huge 5000 mAh battery, is now available for $199 from Amazon.  It is not a bad price for a well appointed mid-range Android phone that will be getting updated to Android Oreo in 2018.

The ZenFone 4 Max has a 5.5″ display that renders 1280 x 720 (that gives you ~401PPI) and is powered by the Snapdragon 430 processor.  It has 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage (which can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot) and, as mentioned, a 5000 mAh battery which can actually be used to charge other devices thanks the reverse charging feature.

The phone is sold unlocked and will work with GSM carriers here in the United States like T-Mobile and AT&T.  Canadian readers, it will work the likes of Rogers and TELUS too.  Here’s a run down of the supported frequencies.

• GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
• LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 26, 28

Unfortunately for those of you who are CDMA carriers like Sprint & Verizon, this phone won’t work for you.

Today’s Deal over at Amazon is on the powerful ASUS ZenFone Zoom.  This 5.5″ display device with a 13MP rear camera, 64GB of storage and unlocked phone is on sale today for $229.  That’s a savings of $170 from the normal $399 price.  For that price, this is a well spec’d phone.  It has an Intel 64-bit Quad-Core processor running at 2.3GHz and coupled with 4GB of RAM.  Storage wise it has 64GB of storage built-in but can be expanded an additional 128GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.

The ZenFone Zoom, as the name suggests, has a 13MP camera with a 3x optical zoom on the rear camera.  Optical zooms are not completely unique but they aren’t found often on phones.  Having an Optical zoom provides much crisper images over software zooming.  The front camera on the Zoom is a 5MP shooter.

Today’s Deal over at Amazon is on the well appointed entry level Asus ZenFone 3 Max.  The 5.2″ phone has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage but what is really impressive is the battery.  It comes with a whopping 4100 mAh battery for all day performance.  Right now you can pick up this phone for $149.

The ZenFone 3 Max is powered by the Mediatek MT6737M quad-core processor running at 1.25 GHz.  It has a 5.2″ IPS display and as mentioned, has 2GB of RAM.  The 16GB of storage can be expanded thanks to the Dual-SIM/MicroSD slot.  You can add an additional 256GB of storage with a card.  The phone runs Android Marshmallow and it is unclear if Nougat will be coming to this phone.

The phone is sold unlocked and works on GSM carriers here in the United States like AT&T and T-Mobile.  Sorry Sprint and Verizon customers, the phone doesn’t support CDMA.

Camera wise, the rear shooter is a 13MP auto-focus unit with flash while the front selfie camera is a 5MP shooter.

The ZenFone 3 Max is in silver and if you are an Amazon Prime customer, shipping of this phone is free to you.

Head over to Amazon to get all the details.